Wisconsin 'paper' shows way ahead

DATELINE SYDNEY: One of the people taking part in the future of journalism conference here is Jay Rosen, professor of journalism at New York University. He is being interviewed via satellite about the new role for journalists in the digital age.

He has also sent me a link to his piece about the move from print to web by The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin. I well remember the Cap Times from a visit I paid to the city back in the early 1970s. It was a traditional paper that boasted of its progressiveness even then.

Now it has taken a very progressive decision. To quote Rosen, "the presses have stopped but the press goes on." The paper has ceased its six-days-a-week newsprint publication to become an internet-based news operation. That will be complemented by the newsprint publication, twice a week from today, of a freesheet.

An editorial on Saturday marking the change said: "Today marks our last edition as a traditional daily newspaper of the sort Americans knew in the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting tomorrow, The Capital Times will be a daily newspaper of the sort Americans will know in the 21st century."

That's the spirit. That's the future. That's how it is going to be. Not everywhere at once. Not right away in every American city. Not next week in any British city. And, looking at the situation here in Australia, not in the next decade here.

But this conference is all about the realisation that the screen is edging aside ink-on-paper journalism.

But what counts is, of course, not the preservation of an outdated platform but the preservation - no, progression - of real journalism. That's our challenge. Scary and exciting at the same time.

Even traditional newspaper owners understand that, as one of my students pointed out in her assignment this term. She opened it with a quote from Rupert Murdoch who some time ago referred to modern media as "fast food with consumers watching news, sport and film clips as they travel, on mobile phones or hand-held wireless devices."

He added: "A new generation of media consumers has risen demanding content delivered when they want it, how they want it, and very much as they want it."

I don't like to think of citizens as consumers, but the guy has a point. Ask the good people of Madison how they access their news nowadays. In a city of 250,000 people, fewer than 20,000 have been buying The Capital Times in recent years.

That's the story in British cities too. The greater Brighton area has many more than 250,000 people but its only local daily, The Argus, is selling barely 30,000. How long before its owners decide that net is best? And what about other cities too?